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M. H. HOLMES.

LIFE PRESERVING MATTRESS. No. 261,713. Patented July 25, 1882.

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INVENTOR:

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ATTORNEYS.

N. PETERS. Phulo-Ulhognpher. wnhln mn. D. C.

UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFICEO MARSHALL H. HOLMES, OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND JAOOB STEINER, OF SAME PLACE.

LlFE-PRESERVING MATTRESS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 261,713, dated July 25, 1882, Application filed January 17, 1882. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be itknown that LMARsHALL H. HoLMEs, of St. Paul, in the county of Ramsey and State ofMinnesota, have invented new and useful Improvements in Life-Preserving Beds, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of this invention is to construct a life-preserver for use on board ships which shall combine the three functions or uses of a bed, boat, and raft; and the invention consists in a bed or mattress and frame of novel construction and provided with attachments whereby the life-preserving capacities of the bed may be readily, expeditiously, and effectually put into use.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which similar letters of ret'erenceindicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 represents a View in perspective of a state-room of a vessel with a series of my improved life-preserving beds in their places therein, said View showing two lower beds in the same plane and one bed in the plane above them; Fig. 2, a perspective view, as seen from below, of one of the mattresses with its frame as drawn out from its place, and showing a strap arranged beneath a central hole in the mattress, the use of which will be hereinafter explained. Fig. 3 is another perspective view of the mattress-frame fitted with oars and having ropes crossing its bottom, and Fig. at is a transverse section on the line 00 m in Fig. 2.

A is a mattress similar in shape to the mattress of an ordinary bed, but inclosed within a frame, B, of wood or other buoyant material. This frame is fitted to slide like a drawer in and out of fixed guides or ways 0 in the stateroom, whereby, in case ot'shipwreck, the mattress, with its frame, may be readily taken out to be used as a life-prcserver.

The mattress A is mainly filled with cork, either chipped or in pieces, or other suitable buoyant material, sufiicient in quantity to give it the necessary buoyancy to support, when in the water, a large-sized person, or more than one person of ordinary weight. On top of the cork filling may be placed hair, moss, or any of the mattress-frame.

other filling which will make the bed soft or easy to sleep on.

Leather straps 1) across the top of the mattress are buttoned at their ends onto the frame to keep the mattress in place when thrown overboard. 5 5

At the sides of the mattress are arranged oars D, which are chained to the frame of the mattress to prevent their being lost, and suitable apertures made for reception of the irons which are attached to the oars, the whole being arranged in any convenient way which will admit of the oars being drawn out when required to propel the frame-inclosed mattress as a boat.

On top of the mattress A are handles or 6 straps c cfor the person using the mattress as a life-preserver to hold onto when jumping with it overboard.

The handles 61 d on the mattress-frame B are for the purpose of drawing the frame-inclosed 7o mattress out of its place in the fixed ways 0 when it is required to convert the bed into a lii'e-preserver, or at other times.

A central hole, 0, of sufficient capacity to receive the body-of a person through it, is made in the mattress, which hole is closed with a removable filling, E, that in a rough or chopping sea is taken out of its hole, and the person using the bed as alit'e-preserver, after unbolting or removing certain of the ropes facross 8c the bottom of the frame, passes the lower portion of his body through said hole and straddles, as asaddle, a leather strap, G, arranged beneath the aperture, and preferably of sufficient length to bag or bend. This strap is secured at its ends to under cross-pieces, g 9, When thus straddling the strap G the life-prcserver or bed is prevented from turning over, and the person using said preserver has his arms and upper portion 0 of his body free to use the oars to propel himself.

The aperture 0 and its filling-piece E may be made either round or square, or of any suitable form, or the mattress may be made with a 5 central breadth which is removable from between two end breadths, and of sufficient size to allow, when removed, of the body of a person passing through the opening, which, when in place, it closes. I

The bed is held in place by ropes on pins, as in the old style of bedsteads, and the whole is so constructed as to make it light and portable and easily handled, and by reason of the cork filling the saturation of it does not impair its buoyancy. It may be of the usual size of an ordinary berth in a vessel, and any number of such life-preserving beds may be lashed together and made into a capacious raft for women and children, and the cars can be used as paddles to propel it.

On the bottom of the mattress-frame B, at each end, are bolts h h for holding it in place on the ways (3 when using the mattress as a bed, and on the ends of said frame are rings 70 76 for lashing two or more of the life-preservin g beds together when converting them into a raft.

These rings lie or shut down within recesses in the mattress-frame, so as not to interfere with the sliding of said frame and its inclosed mattress within the fixed ways 0.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination of a buoyant mattress having a central aperture removably filled, the surrounding buoyant frame B, sliding in ways of state-room, the straps b c, the handles d, the ropes f, and the strap G, secured at its ends under cross-pieces g of frame b, substantially as shown and described.

MARSHALL H. HOLMES.

Witnesses:

T. K. Enwanns, R. O. SWEENY. 

